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Public Personas of Minnesota Women in the Early 20Th Century College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day Undergraduate Research 4-26-2018 Armed Flapper Moonshiners and Crusading Women: Public Personas of Minnesota Women in the Early 20th Century Jessica Davis College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/ur_cscday Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Davis, Jessica, "Armed Flapper Moonshiners and Crusading Women: Public Personas of Minnesota Women in the Early 20th Century" (2018). Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day. 29. https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/ur_cscday/29 This Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Jessica Davis HIST: Senior Thesis Professor Perelman May 7, 2018 Armed Flapper Moonshiners and Crusading Women: Public Personas of Minnesota Women in the Early 20th Century Introduction In 1873 and 1874, a phenomenon swept the country by storm. Good-natured, supposedly meek women were causing a ruckus in front of saloons in the form of reciting prayers or shouting names of men known to frequent them. This event was known as the Women’s Crusade, and while one of the first well-documented instances was in Hillsboro, Ohio women in other cities, including St. Paul, Minnesota, took up the same rallying cry. Dio Lewis inspired the incident in Hillsboro, when he gave an impassioned speech to the women of the town; his speech describes his mother’s marriage to his alcoholic father, along with the pain brought on their family by his father and his habits.1 This incident in Hillsboro holds historical significance as it led to the formation of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. While society did not consider the women crusaders the most respectable women, they banded together to form a women’s organization that remains respectable today by the standard of most of society. In the 1920s and early 1930s, Prohibition was in full effect, or so history textbooks tell the story. Instead, the production and distribution of alcohol throughout the nation, in defiance of the law, plagued the country. While the law did not prevent consumption of alcohol, its temperance beginnings tell us that was the desired outcome of its enactment in 1920. Women 1 Ruth Birgitta Anderson Bordin, Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981), 18. 2 were leaving their homes to stop the consumption of alcohol; however, many disagreed with the amendment that would only prevent its production and distribution; this vocalization of their own ideas allowed women to experience a sense of freedom of thought.2 The culture of crime brought about by Prohibition allowed other women a chance to leave their homes and join the lucrative business of bootlegging or manufacturing alcohol. While their motivation for being in public vastly differs from that of the women who belonged to WCTU chapters, both groups left their homes to have a public voice different from their husbands’.3 In Hampton, Minnesota, the Friermuth family, more notably its female members, were notorious for moonshining.4 Their family was close, celebrating the return of its matriarch from jail in 1929 with a party; this behavior falls outside the socially acceptable behavior during the time period and was reported in Minneapolis newspapers at the time.5 Aside from women who were making illegal alcohol, St. Paul in the 1920s was home to many gangs. John Dillinger, a recognizable name amongst early-American mobsters, placed his gang in the area during the early 1930s. Men were not alone within these gangs, as women were amongst those who moved with them. These women are now known as “gun molls.” While the molls probably did not refer to themselves this way, the term comes from scholarship on the subject, as women would often cross socially acceptable gender boundaries in their attempts to survive in a capitalistic world. 2 Jed Dannenbaum, “The Origins of Temperance and Militancy among American Women,” Journal of Social History, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Winter, 1981), 240. 3 Holly Berkley Fletcher, Gender and the American Temperance Movement of the Nineteenth Century, (London: Routledge, 2016), 34. 4 Moonshining in this case is the making of illegal alcohol. Moonshiners were those who manufactured the illegal alcohol and profited from it. Occasionally the people who were moonshiners were also responsible for the transport of the alcohol—and would have been referred to as bootleggers. 5 “Rum Suspect Released Under $1,000 Bail After Dry Raid Near Hastings.” Minneapolis Daily Star, August 23, 1924 3 The various ways in which these women attempted to survive in a world were all framed within their gender boundary. The women of the WCTU fell within the frame of their conscious choice to appear as respectable, middle-class white women. This mindset affected their choice of dress, their public appearance, and their dealings with funds for the organization. Women who participated in illegal activities (moonshining or involvement with gangs) had different motives which affected how they would survive in a world that frowned upon their livelihood; however, they both subconsciously operated within a gendered framework. Although gun molls operated within this gendered framework as well, their motives were much more about flying under the radar in society rather than how to make money and save their family—as may have been part of the motivation for the Friermuths. Gun molls were involved with gangsters, and while their partner often had another legal wife, the molls believed themselves to be in a marriage and would be incredibly loyal.6 As part of the gang, the molls would often pose as a family with other gang members to avoid suspicion. While the motivation was not to save a family, their use of the family structure as a source of stability to move within the public demonstrates how important the family unit was within society in this era. Women around the Twin Cities of Minnesota in the early twentieth century may have imagined their gender constraints to be remarkably different based on their station in life; however, their actions demonstrate remarkable similarities in public persona. Women who were members of the WCTU focused on their perception of respectability – from how they dressed, to their public actions, and even in how they raised money for funding.7 While they did not outright state their motivations for such actions, the historiographic trend indicates this all stemmed from 6 Claire Bond Potter, ”” I’ll Go the Limit and Then Some”: Gun Molls, Desire, and Danger in the 1930s,” (Feminist Studies 21, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 41-66), 43. 7 Barbara Leslie Epstein, The Politics of Domesticity: Women, Evangelism, and Temperance in Nineteenth-Century America (Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1981), 9. 4 a desire to defend their families and home. Although women who engaged in illegal activities also found pressures to be respectable, it stemmed from an outwardly different motivation. A gendered reading of a newspaper article, which detailed the various arrests and misdeeds of the Friermuth family of Hampton, Minnesota, demonstrates this desire to be respectable.8 Even though the family was very close, due to lack of sources we cannot say for certain their true motivation for investing in a moonshining business. It may simply have been to provide for their family and survive in the downtrodden economic time. While gun molls were first engaged in illegal activities due to their ties to gangsters, the operation of a gang as a family unit further reinforces the family as a center point within society. Despite these women not conforming to what society believed that a woman should, they still intuitively knew what type of behavior they could adopt to avoid suspicion. In a world full of obstacles, the use of various tactics, seen by both women within the WCTU, along with their counterparts who participated in illegal activities allowed both groups to survive. First, this paper will examine the various ways that women found camaraderie, or at least a group mentality, outside of their homes. Next, this paper will explain the various motives behind the public personas of women in the WCTU and women who were manufacturing illegal alcohol. In addition, this section will look at the limited knowledge on how gun molls chose to portray themselves to reinforce ideas that the Friermuth sisters chose to appear outside the accepted range within normal society. Lastly, this paper will look at how both groups of women dealt with money. Both groups of women, WCTU and those engaging in illegal activities, saw some sort of gendered framework surrounding their daily activities and had similar tactics to conform to it. 8 “Two Armed Flapper Moonshiners Are Jailed; Operated Giant Plant.” Minneapolis Daily Star, August 15, 1924. 5 Through leaving their homes, women of the WCTU found solace in being able to talk to one another about day to day issues they had in common. Women who were making illegal alcohol also found new opportunities outside of what was socially acceptable for women to do in the early twentieth century. The public personas of women in the WCTU reflected them striving to be respectable and protect their families; whereas the public personas of the Friermuth women chose their appearance to make a statement – but their reason for making illegal alcohol could have been to keep their family afloat in a difficult time, financially speaking. Gun molls had different public personas based upon how they were acting in society and when they were trying to avoid suspicion.
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